TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM—Brave New World!
Monday, Jan. 7, 2008!
This marks the return of the WORD to trouble an already troubled new year. Floods in Fernley, rioting Kikuyu, blizzards, fungus and whatnot—and let's not even start with presidential politics!
I hope you had happy, restful and peaceful holidays. The WORD, tiring of sloth at St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose, broke out three days after Christmas and, disguised as a pundit, invented TODAY'S WORD ON JOURNALISM—The BLOG! Feedback and suggestions—printable and otherwise—always welcome.
Meanwhile, here we go again, dear friends....
Lump o’ coal:
“We generously ask big media to sit on Santa’s knee, tell us what it wants for Christmas, and then push through whatever of these wishes are politically and practically feasible. No test to see if anyone's been naughty or nice. Just another big, shiny present for the favored few who already hold an FCC license--and a lump of coal for the rest of us. Happy holidays!”
—FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, on end-of-year rule changes permitting more media ownership consolidation, Dec. 18, 2007. (Thanks to alert WORDster Alexandra Halsey) see http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/wo/story/289217.html
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Ah, I love Michael Copps. His comment is spot-on as usual. All we need is more consolidation, so news and information can be funneled through and manipulated by a smaller and smaller number of outlets. It's sad to say that more and more of our "news" these days isn't really news but canned copy, spun messages or manipulated facts. Anymore, I don't wholly trust what I see on TV or in the newspaper unless the source or origin of the story is transparent...AND I know who owns the news organization and what all their business interests are. Some days, as a journalist, it's enough to make me want to say, "Who STOLE my free press?!" I'd really like to steal it back...
ReplyDeleteThere's not much that surprises me about media management and political heavy-handedness, but the FCC's arrogance in the face of so much public and congressional opposition to permitting more ownership consolidation is breath-taking.
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